There are still a lot of people sold on the theory that the government is intentionally buying up all the ammunition to keep the citizenry from having any, and they think the shortage is a recent development.

It isn’t.

I’ve been interviewing manufacturers and writing about the current shortage since 2007, and the genesis of the shortage actually goes back a decade long than that, to 1997, and the North Hollywood Shootout. Fears of gun control began when Obama was elected in 2008 adding to the stress of the market, but there was a global shortage developing by 2010.

When Obama was re-elected in 2012, sales of firearms and ammunition went through the roof, and gun stores inventories were utterly wiped out after Newtown. Lots of new shooters with new guns buying ammunition for those guns means that manufacturers have not be able to add shifts, tooling, and new business fast enough to meet demand.

And that brings us to where Frank Miniter comes in with his op-ed published in Forbes today, Is The Obama Administration The Cause Of Gun Ammunition Shortages?

It’s well worth reading, primarily for explaining that government ammunition purchasing—even at the Department of Homeland Security—is down. But Miniter mostly rehashes what we already know.

Where did all the ammo go? Into the hands of 100 million American gun owners, who are buying it as fast as they possibly can to build up their private caches, still uncertain of what the future may bring.